Editing Unidentified flying object (section)

===== Blue Book and the Condon Committee (1968–1970) =====
{{main|Condon Committee}}

A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the USAF and published as the Condon Report arrived at a negative conclusion in 1968.<ref name="COMETA" /> Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Committee's negative conclusion as a rationale, thus ending official Air Force UFO investigations. However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the Bolender memo, along with later government documents, revealed that non-public [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] UFO investigations continued after 1970. The Bolender memo first stated that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect national security&nbsp;... are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that more serious UFO incidents already were handled outside the public Blue Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose."<ref group="note">For example, current USAF general reporting procedures are in [http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/AFI10-206.pdf Air Force Instruction (AFI)10-206] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618065117/http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/AFI10-206.pdf |date=June 18, 2008 }}. Section 5.7.3 (p. 64) lists sightings of "unidentified flying objects" and "aircraft of unconventional design" as separate categories from potentially hostile but conventional, unidentified aircraft, missiles, surface vessels, or submarines. Additionally, "unidentified objects" detected by missile warning systems, creating a potential risk of nuclear war, are covered by Rule 5E (p.35).</ref>

In the late 1960s, a chapter on UFOs in the Space Sciences course at the [[United States Air Force Academy|U.S. Air Force Academy]] gave serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When word of the curriculum became public, in 1970, the Air Force issued a statement to the effect that the book was outdated and cadets instead were being informed of the [[Condon Committee|Condon Report]]'s negative conclusion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cufon.org/cufon/afu.htm |title=Introductory Space Science |website=CUFON.org |publisher=Computer UFO Network (CUFON) |location=West Jacksonville, FL |access-date=May 16, 2013 |archive-date=May 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530172640/http://www.cufon.org/cufon/afu.htm |url-status=live }} Air Force Academy UFO material.</ref>

Controversy surrounded the report, both before and after its release. It has been observed that the report was "harshly criticized by numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA&nbsp;... [which] recommended moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs."<ref name="COMETA" /> In an address to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences|AAAS]], [[James E. McDonald]] said he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the problem and criticized the Condon Report and earlier studies by the USAF as scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's conclusions<ref name="default">{{cite conference |first=James E. |last=McDonald |title=Science in Default: Twenty-Two Years of Inadequate UFO Investigations |conference=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]], 134th Meeting |book-title=UFO's: A Scientific Debate |editor1-last=Sagan |editor1-first=Carl |editor1-link=Carl Sagan |editor2-last=Page |editor2-first=Thornton |url=https://archive.org/details/ufosascientificd0000unse_n5n6 |edition=Reprint |orig-year=Originally published 1972 |date=1974 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-00739-8 |oclc=934695 |lccn=72004572 |access-date=March 30, 2011  |url-access=registration }}</ref> and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court".<ref name="McDonald" /> J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who worked as a USAF consultant from 1948, sharply criticized the Condon Committee Report and later wrote two nontechnical books that set forth the case for continuing to investigate UFO reports.

Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book, a USAF investigation that preceded Condon's.<ref>[[#Ruppelt|Ruppelt 1956]]</ref>